The epidemiology and detectability of asymptomatic plasmodium vivax and plasmodium falciparum infections in low, moderate and high transmission settings in Ethiopia.

Conventional diagnostics missed nearly half of the asymptomatic Plasmodium reservoir detected by nPCR. The detectability of infections was particularly low in older age groups and low transmission settings. These findings highlight the need for sensitive diagnostic tools to detect the entire parasite reservoir and potential infection transmitters.